Last week we heard the story of Doubting Thomas from John’s Gospel. Luke for whatever reason does not include the story of Thomas. I am not sure why Luke omits it but based off of that story I have to wonder about today’s reading. The disciples were gathered together in once place and there they were discussing and trying to make sense out of the Resurrection…good luck. Yet I have to wonder, where the doors still locked? Were they still afraid that they too would be caught up in the persecution that began with Jesus? Luke gives no answer but as I read the text I am unable to get the locked doors out of my mind. My own understanding of the days after Easter were filled with news of the Jesus’ death traveling fast and the Disciples either trying to lay low - as John’s Gospel tells us - or getting out of Dodge - as Luke tells us with the story commonly called the Road to Emmaus that happens right before this scripture. Whatever the response to the death of Jesus, the Disciples were not ready to be public. They were certainly not going to gather up all those who were shouting Hosannas and picket the Governors estate. They were not going to do anything that would land them in front of the very same people who tried to silence Jesus with Crucifixion. The Disciples were fleeing, be it on foot or just from the public eye, Luke gives us the impression that they were very much “behind locked doors” mentally and spiritually if not also physically.
This concept of being behind locked doors mentally and spiritually would make for a good sermon I think. I could give that sermon… we could spend 10 to 12 minutes talking about how we ourselves are afraid and hiding from the new life that comes in Jesus. How our fear has led us lock ourselves off from the miracle that is the World Made New. I think that might be a good one sermon…but for today’s reading it would not be the right sermon. For as much as we might like to see Jesus and the New Life that comes through him in mental/spiritual terms the reality is that Jesus is very much real today, very much in the flesh as it were, and very much hungry. Jesus has physically returned, Jesus is standing there before the men and women gathered in that house and he speaks with the Disciples, he invites others to touch him, and in what would have been a mind-boggling experience he asks for, is served and eats Broiled Fish in their presence. For the last two weeks we have been hearing how acknowledging that the dead have risen would have caused those around you to wonder if you do not need therapy and now here you sit or stand or whatever but Jesus is hungry and so he is eating. As it turns out you might want to look into getting your money back from that shrink.
I get the sense that the Disciples who were said to have been frightened and afraid have not been comforted just yet. Our scripture tells us that they were afraid, they were wondering, they were joyous, they were disbelieving, they didn’t know what to feel, they didn’t know what to think about a Jesus who came back let alone a Jesus who would be hungry. The reality is that Jesus spoke about his return and he taught them about the fact that the Messiah would return but like much of life we can nod our heads at something that just seems theoretical or something that we don’t totally understand believing that it would remain theory, but when it all happens, when it really happens we join the Disciples standing there watching Jesus eat with blank expressions on our faces, saying nothing but our minds reeling, all the time thinking about going up and poking him.
Because I am a lot like those Disciples I have to admit something – I am sitting there with my mouth agape, stunned in disbelief all the while needing Jesus break into my world without knocking. I need Jesus to appear rather than come to the door because I am not so sure that I would have answered if he had knocked. Jesus needs to show up without the door being unlocked and once inside eat and sit with you and me for in the sitting and the eating we each come face to face with the reality that is God’s amazing Grace. Despite my rejection, despite the rejection of the disciples, despite the rejection of the world Jesus returns and sits amongst us - those who have sinned and remain sinners, those who have denied him and will do so again, those who do not trust but want to - and shares a meal with us. Around that Broiled Fish the Disciples learned all they ever needed to know about Grace. For brothers and sisters the reality of God is that in Christ’s physical return we get flesh and bone grace lived out. So it is for this reason, that a physical Christ returned to sit and eat amongst those who denied him and did so without saying a word about the sins of betrayal and fear, that we must open a new eye to the world that we live in, the world that Christ came to…twice, and the world that Christ will return once again. For this is the realm where grace is experienced, this is the place where the term Miracle means something at all, it is here where we must live our lives never growing complacent with the world for it is only here that Jesus shows up behind locked doors and opens our minds to the Will of God.
Here is my point…in times like these it is very easy to slip into the sweet bye and bye. There is little that makes sense about the way in which hatred, injustice, oppression seems to run rampant and so we begin thinking about those pearly gates a little too early. Right here and right now is the time for you and me to have our mouths hang open at the sure and certain sign of grace living and breathing before our very eyes.
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